Because of skyrocketing student enrollment, two school campuses in Atherton and Menlo Park will see some significant changes in the next couple of years.

Laurel Elementary School, which now serves students in grades K-3 at its 95 Edge Road campus in Atherton, will become Laurel School: Lower Campus in the fall of 2016. At that time, only students in grades K-2 will attend there.

Meanwhile, students in grades 3-5 will go to a new Laurel School: Upper Campus at the old O’Connor Elementary School site at 275 Elliott Drive, Menlo Park.

The changes are driven by a 40 percent enrollment growth in the past decade, said Menlo Park City School District Superintendent Maurice Ghysels.

“We’re a district of choice, a go-to school district, if you will,” he said.

Construction of the new school is scheduled to begin in May and take about 16 months.

According to the district’s website, the roughly 6.1-acre O’Connor site has been occupied by the German American International School since 1991. The private school will leave next summer when its lease ends.

Construction of the two-story, 60,000-square-foot Laurel School: Upper Campus will be funded by Measure W, a $23 million bond approved by voters in 2013, Ghysels said.

He said the new school will be about 1½ miles away from the 48,000-square-foot Laurel School: Lower Campus. It’ll feature 16 classrooms and other rooms dedicated to music, science and art. A gymnasium, library and multimedia center, hard court play spaces, turf field and asphalt running track also are planned.

The district has submitted designs to the state architect and is awaiting a response, Ghysels said, adding that the next step will be to select a contractor, possibly in November.

“What we are going to have is one school, one neighborhood, one faculty, one parent-teacher association, one administration and so on, so forth,” Ghysels said. “It will be one school and two separate campuses. The form and function of this campus is going to greatly benefit student learning and teacher instruction in the [Menlo Park City School District] and will be a wonderful school for our community.”

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